Cutting die



G. DONALDSON ETAL 2,357,883

Sept. 12 1944.

CUTTING DIE Filed Sept. 22. 1942 Patented Sept. 12, 1944 CUTTING DIEGeorge Donaldson and John Paul Klee, Leicester, England, assignors toUnited Shoe Machinery Corporation, Flemington, N. J a corporation of NewJersey Application September 2-2, 1942, Serial No. 459,272 In GreatBritain November 3, 1941 2 Claims.

'I'his invention relates to dies and is herein illustrated as embodiedin a cutting die of the type disclosed in United States Letters PatentNo. 1124,739, granted January 12, 1915, upon application of John J.Heys.

In cutting sole blanks from sheet material, such as ieather, use iscommonly made of presses in which are employecl dies, of the typereferred to, which are moved manually from one operative position toanother on a, piece of sheet material located upon a cutting bed. Suchdies are usually provided wth guards to prevent the operators fingersfrom accidentally assuming a dangerous position between the upperportion of the die and the presser member which performs the cuttingoperation.

It is an object of the present invention to provde an improved dieincluding a guard member of novel construction, such that it; can bequickly and conveniently attached to dies of various,

strip of flexible material, such as rubber, reinforced by metal.Preferably the strip has an outwardly extending fiange which is notchedto facilitate the bending of the strip to conform to the shape of thedie. An advantage of this construction is that the guar d member can bequickly bent '00 conform to the wal1 of 21. die of any shape and. can bereadily secured in ixed position.

These and other features of the invention are illustrated in thefollowing specfication and. in the accompanying drawing and are pointedout in the claims.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a die em'bodying the invention; and.

Fig. 2 is a vertica1 cross-sectional view through a side wall of the dietaken a1ong line IIII of Eis. 1.

The die shown in Fig. 1 is a hollow die having an upstanding side Wall I0 provided with a pressure-receving edge I I and a cutting edge 12,there being adjacent to the upper edge a pluralty of guard members 14and 15. The die shown is one which is suitable for cuttng blanks Orhalf-soles, and has a orepart portion I'| and a waist portion I8 havingcorners 20.

Each of the guard members 14 and 16 is composed of a strip of moldedrubber, channel-shaped in cross section, and having a vertical flange 22and an outwardly extending flange portion 24.

which is notched to form a plurality of tabs '26. Inserted in each stripis a metal reinforcing member or band 28 which is suificiently soft sothat it can be bent with the strip to conform to the shape of the sidewal] of the die, but will retain substantially the shape into which t isbent. The

notched construction of the flange 24 permit the bending of the stripsabout the side wa1l of the die even at the corners, without bunching ofthe material. The metal reinforcng member serves to maintain the stripsin position closely in contact with the wa1l of the die, the stripsbeing rigidly secured thereto by rivets 30.

In order to facilitate handling of the die, there are provided fingergrips 32 in the form of rubber washers having concave head portions 34,the washers being secured to the side wal1 of the die by screws 36.These grips are so positioned along the sides of the die that a hand ofthe operator, when it grasps an end of the die, aan readily bepositioned with a finger and the thumb on the opposte sides of the diein engagement with two of the grips. Ths construction tends to preventdies, which are often of considerable weight, from slipping out of theoperators hands.

In locating the die upon material in a ress, the operator wi11 usuallypick -up the die wth both hands, wth the middle fingers and thumbs inengagement with the gripg-3Z and wth the hands positioned below theguard members 14 and I6. The tabs 26 wi11 prevent any portion of theoperators hands from extending beyond the upper edge of the die in theposition in which it might be crushed between the presser member and thedie.

Having thus described our invention what we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a hollow cuttin g die having a wall provided with a cutting edgeand a pressure receiving edge, a strip of fiexible material bent alongthe pressure receiving edge, the strip comprising a portion engaging thewa1l and a notched flange extending outwardly from the wal] to form aguard member, a metal reinforcing strip embedded in and approximatelythe length of that portion of the flexible strip which engages the wa1lof the die for maintaning said flexible strip in position on and forconforming it to the contour of said wall, and means to fasten saidstrips t0 said wal1.

2. In a hol1ow cutting die having 2. Wall provided with a cutting edgeand a pressure-receiving edge, a strip of flexible material bent alom-gthe pressur-receiving edge, the strip comprising a portion engaging thewal] and a flange portion extending outwardiy from the wal1 to form aguard member, a metal reinforcing member embedded in said portion of thestrip engaging the wall, said member extending along the Wal]substantially throughout the length of the flexible strip formaintaining the strip in position on and. to conform itto said wall, andmeans to secure said strip and member to said wa11.

GEORGE DONALDSON.

JOHN PAUL KLEE.

